andlarry (u/andlarry)

andlarry commented on Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer bloomberg.com/news/articl... · Posted by u/infrawhispers

llm_nerd · 2 years ago

I don't think having discrete programs for subsets of the population is single-payer. Single-payer to my understanding means that the health system itself has a single payer. Having the government pay for some patients and a myriad of insurance plans covering the bulk of other patients is not single payer.

As they said, it is bizarre the lengths the US will go to to maintain its layered system. It seems purpose built to screw people over.

andlarry · 2 years ago

We do not have universal single-payer but we have a few very large government-run single-payer systems.

If you have an example of a country with a single program that has more effective outcomes for a population of similar makeup and size, that would be a useful comparison.

andlarry commented on Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer bloomberg.com/news/articl... · Posted by u/infrawhispers

hotpotamus · 2 years ago

You know, it's rather impressive the lengths the US will goto to avoid socialized/single-payer health plans (for anyone who isn't in the military or poor or over 65 at least). That sounds rather cockamamy to me.

andlarry · 2 years ago

Medicare: 65,748,297 people enrolled [0]

Medicaid and CHIP: 85,614,581 people enrolled [1]

Military: 9.5 million people covered [2]

The US has not one but two of the largest single payer health insurance programs in the world.

Medicare alone has more people enrolled than any European country's single payer programs other than Germany (pop 83,294,633) and the UK (pop 67,736,802).

[0] https://medicareadvocacy.org/medicare-enrollment-numbers/ [1] https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/program-information/medica... [2] https://www.health.mil/Military-Health-Topics/MHS-Toolkits/M...

andlarry commented on Mastodon hit 10M users mastodon.social/@mastodon... · Posted by u/xena

ilyt · 3 years ago

Before that we also had various moral panics, like the one about roleplaying games pushing "the devil".

And for many years (still rears its ugly head from time to time) "the game violence causes real violence" garbage.

andlarry · 3 years ago

> Before that we also had various moral panics, like the one about roleplaying games pushing "the devil".

Ahh, ok. So the moral panic of the early 80s, about 40 years ago.

The "video games cause real violence" argument was personified by Tipper Gore in the 90s, more than 30 years ago.

I don't recall anything from 15-20 years ago particular to conservatives. It has been mainstream since the 90s.

andlarry commented on Mastodon hit 10M users mastodon.social/@mastodon... · Posted by u/xena

ilyt · 3 years ago

Same. Today world is some bizzaro dimension. For example, 15-20 years ago we had conservatives yelling video games are the devil and they need to be censored and some topics not even touched. Now I see same shit from "left" (it's not progressive, it's some fascist facsimile of it) and weirdly enough, a lot of gaming journalism that seems to hate their own audience now.

> The reason given was that white people must not be able to opt out of the BIPOC experience of political outrage.

...or the modern left being by far the most racist ones out there

andlarry · 3 years ago

> For example, 15-20 years ago we had conservatives yelling video games are the devil and they need to be censored and some topics not even touched.

My memory of the 2003 to 2008 time frame is different.

I recall mainstream complaints about GTA 3, released 2001. Famously, Senator Clinton asked the FTC to investigate GTA 3 over the "hot coffee" mod in 2005.

There was also the 2005 California Law [0] that banned the sale of violent video games to minors.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_v._Entertainment_Merchan...

andlarry commented on Discriminatory attitudes against the unvaccinated during a global pandemic nature.com/articles/s4158... · Posted by u/tokai

jiggawatts · 3 years ago

The fact that you even asked this question speaks volumes.

Vaccines provide herd immunity. It’s not like bullet proof armour that only protects the wearer! We all need to get it for the population to be protected.

You getting more sick because you’re unvaccinated means you spread it to others. Babies. The elderly. The immune compromised. And so on.

What I don't understand is how it's possible to be two years into a pandemic, and people are still ignorant of this.

Especially now that measles is spreading again because the vaccination rate has dropped below the herd immunity level.

andlarry · 3 years ago

Ahh, ok. I was under the impression that the vaccines were to prevent a severe reaction in those at risk due to age or comorbidities, which is why some areas gave priority to the elderly.

Are there places where herd immunity was achieved due to vaccination?

andlarry commented on Discriminatory attitudes against the unvaccinated during a global pandemic nature.com/articles/s4158... · Posted by u/tokai

thot_experiment · 3 years ago

Ok but like, we don't let the unlicensed drive cars either because that is you know, dangerous to other humans. Some of the reactions you're describing are extreme for sure, but the fundamental idea of refusing rights to people who don't care about the safety of others is sound and important to a working society.

andlarry · 3 years ago

Why would avoiding the covid vaccine mean someone doesn't care about the safety of others?

andlarry commented on GM makes $1,500 subscription mandatory on GMC, Buick, Cadillac Models thedrive.com/news/gm-make... · Posted by u/seitzej

vishnugupta · 4 years ago

This is a tangent and I know there’s already a front page story on it but still couldn’t resist.

By God the cars in the US are huge. About a decade or so back mostly pick ups were kinda big but now looks like the default size is pick up and it only gets bigger from there. Even Tesla model 3 for that matter is huge by Indian standards.

andlarry · 4 years ago

There are cultural and legal reasons.

One legal reason is fuel economy regulations (CAFE standards) encourage car makers to make their cars large enough to be classified as "light trucks", leading to less stringent fuel economy standards.

A larger footprint also reduces the fuel economy standard, incentivizing larger vehicles.

See: https://www.thedrive.com/news/small-cars-are-getting-huge-ar...

andlarry commented on A city fights back against heavyweight cars bloomberg.com/news/articl... · Posted by u/ingve

kube-system · 4 years ago

Only 28 of our current states have a population above the median population of all US states and territories. I don't think the other 22 states would be wild about that admission standard.

andlarry · 4 years ago

> I don't think the other 22 states would be wild about that admission standard.

We have a well established process for asking states about this sort of thing, the US Congress. They don't seem to be wild about the minimum populous state standard, we should ask about the median populous state standard.